This Day In Music: Bohemian Rhapsody

This Day In Music: Bohemian Rhapsody

On this day, Aug 24th 1975, Queen started recording “Bohemian Rhapsody” at Rockfield studios in Monmouth, Wales, (the song was recorded over three weeks). Queen singer Freddie Mercury had mentally prepared the song beforehand and directed the band throughout the sessions. May, Mercury, and Taylor sang their vocal parts continually for ten to twelve hours a day, resulting in 180 separate overdubs.

And what a song it turned out to be! Amazingly it almost didn’t make it as a single. Queen’s record company EMI were reluctant to release it as a single but events turned after the band slipped a copy to DJ Kenny Everett - who played it on London’s Capital Radio 14 times over the following weekend, persuading EMI, the BBC and other sceptics that the listening public could handle it.